As I'm reading through a lot of the posts about New Year's resolutions, weight loss, and using this as a time to re-focus on taking care of ourselves and being who we want to be, I'm thinking that outside of numbers on a scale maybe something good to do would be to focus on the mental half of that as well.

So much of our weight and how we gain, lose, and feel about it has very little to do with our actual physical bodies or needs but so much to do with where we're at mentally and emotionally. This is a really stressful time of year, and we often feel out of control with holiday chaos or wildcard relatives, or feel deficient as another year rolls around and we worry we haven't done enough. Our weight and our bodies can be a really easy thing to turn our focus and worries on because they are something we can control and take immediate action on. I don't think it's a coincidence that so many people weigh themselves for the first time in months all of a sudden around this time - I would bet a lot of people aren't stressed out because they stepped on the scale and saw a number, but they stepped on that scale because they were stressed out and looking for something to focus on.

It's also really hard to know sometimes when we should be worried about our weight as a health issue and when might just be us listening to insecurities and bad messages we're getting from society. As self aware and proud feminists, sometimes it's hard not to feel guilty that you want to lose weight, as if you're somehow betraying the cause of body equality to want to lose weight which brings you closer to the shitty cultural ideal we all hate - but are all susceptible to.

I don't really have the answers to any of this - but I am wondering if maybe as a go-along with the weekly threads and weight loss accountability stuff we're organizing, it might not be a good idea to have a weekly open thread about the mental and emotional aspects of how we feel about our bodies and how we feel about how we feel about them, and encouraging ourselves to love ourselves. This isn't something that is like a counter-post or anything to the weight loss or against it in anyway: I think the two go hand in hand really, really well and are two sides of the same coin. This is also not limited to people who aren't trying to lose weight right now. At the end of the day, feeling comfortable and happy in our body, at whatever weight, is a two part process; working to be where we want to be AND working to address the underlying thoughts and feelings that are a lot of the reason why we aren't where we want to be or aren't happy with where we are.

I'd like to have a thread where we post body positive ideas and thoughts and feelings - where we focus on the idea that while we may be happy or unhappy with our weight or current body but that doesn't mean that we should love ourselves any more or any less. A thread where we can talk about what really makes us want to lose weight - is it because we're tired of being out of breath climbing up stairs, or is it because we're worried that these extra 15 pounds have made us unlovable? A thread where we hold each other accountable not for numbers, but for treating ourselves in a kind and loving way and remembering that our weight is not who we are.